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How stories can light up lives

GravityLight, in collaboration with Shell, brought sustainable light to off-grid communities in Kenya. Inspired by this journey and the joy of reading that light enables, discover a collection of 50 classic stories from around the world.

Shell bedtime stories

Access to reliable light can mean access to greater opportunities, to employment, and to education. Learn how one bright energy idea is bringing light to families off grid and discover a collection of stories created in celebration of light and reading.

From 50 Nights to 50 Classic Stories Transcript

[Background music] Emotive, gradually rising music plays.

[Video footage] Opening darkness is illuminated by hands turning on a small GravityLight.

[Video footage] A man holds a GravityLight in his hands. Words gradually appear in white letters as the camera pans up to show onlooking school children.

[Text displays] How much brighter would your future be with more light?

[Video footage] A lady behind a vegetable stand switches on two GravityLights

[Video footage] The lady and another woman smile together in the glow of the lights

[Text displays] Access to light can bring opportunity,

[Video footage] The camera pans across the body of a GravityLight displaying its logo

[Text displays] Access to light can bring opportunity, employment

[Video footage] Children sit studying at rows of desks in a room illuminated by strings of GravityLights lamps suspended from the ceiling

[Video footage] Two people in GravityLight orange jackets work happily

[Video footage] A group of six people including Yemi Alade and GravityLight’s founder hold a pair of scissors to cut a white ribbon opening the 50 Night Tour. #makethefuture is visible on a roof above them.

[Text displays] Across Kenya on a 50 Night Tour

[Video footage] Yemi Alade raises the scissors happily having cut the ribbon as others around her applaud.

[Video footage] A line of people wait to try out and learn more about GravityLight. A boy at the front of shot smiles broadly.

[Video footage] A group of four dancers perform in front of a DJ on the 50 Night Tour’s orange stage

[Video footage] The footage switches to show animations from the Bedtimes Stories campaign. In a navy landscape, a shepherd with a crook and hat, pulls the cord of a GravityLight. The device produces a spotlight of light in which an open book appears.

[Video footage] An animated hare and tortoise sit side by side in a forest, ready to race. The hare darts off in a puff of smoke.

[Text displays] Now, Shell has collated a set of 50 bedtime stories

[Video footage] The hare bounds through a pink background with yellow leaves.

[Video footage] It skids to a stop, only to see the tortoise waiting there wearing a victory crown being showered in confetti.

[Video footage] A mouse wearing a red dress and carrying an umbrella, from the story Town Mouse Country Mouse, bounces.

A different mouse from the story in a blue dress spins in a blue room surrounded by furniture.

[Video footage] The footage switches back to video. Pixie Lott reads a children’s story in a dark room under a GravityLight.

[Text displays] Celebrating the joy of light and reading

[Audio] We hear a snippet of Pixie Lott reading through the background music.

[Video footage] A child watches her reading.

[Video footage] Yemi Alade sits in a similar dark room lit by a GravityLight next to her. She reads to a group of children sitting on the floor around her.

[Audio] We hear a snippet of Yemi Alade reading through the background music.

[Video footage] The children laugh as they watch her read.

[Video footage] An overhead shot of Luan Santana in a similar dark room reads in Portuguese to a group of children. We can see the counter-weight bag of the GravityLight hanging in the air as it’s lamps once again light the room.

[Video] Close up of Luan Santana reading the bedtime story.

[Audio addition] We hear a snippet of Luan Santana reading in Portuguese through the background music.

[Video footage] The footage switches once again to the animated Bedtime Stories. The mouse in the blue dress from Town Mouse Country mouse is running down a blue then purple corridor followed by a green garden.

[Text displays] Find and share your favourite,

[Video footage] A tall green hill with a small house and the aforementioned shepherd on top. The shot pans down the hill to a busy medieval town by the water below.

[Video footage] A bear in blue overalls, a raccoon with a pick axe, a fox in a check shirt with a rake and a rabbit in a pink shirt with a shovel all work on a green lawn.

[Text displays] because a brighter future is possible if we work together

[Video footage] The footage switches back to video. A crowd of local people stand in the queue on the 50 Night Tour

[Video footage] A local man and a local woman who holds a baby, each talk to member of the GravityLight team.

[Video footage] A large group of children watching the 50 Night Tour performance wave and cheer at the camera as it makes its way along the crowd.

[Background music] The background music fades

{Visual transition} White screen with the Shell logo at the centre. Below the logo, text displays in black letters.

Every day many people take electricity for granted, however for 16% of the world it is still a luxury. Nowhere is this issue more acute than in Kenya. Nearly 80% of the country has no access to electricity and instead relies on kerosene for light and cooking.

Not only is this kerosene potentially unhealthy, but it is unreliable as a light source. The ability to work into the evening or study under kerosene light is limited.

But thanks to an ingenious solution that uses the weight of a bag of rocks to create light, that’s changing.

The bright light of an energy idea

GravityLight is a startup intent on replacing kerosene lamps in off grid communities with a light that works without electricity or fuel. Instead, it is powered only by the kinetic energy captured from a falling weight.

In October 2016 GravityLight, in collaboration with Shell, embarked on a 50-night tour of Kenya that launched the product commercially, and demonstrated its benefits to the local population.

One of those benefits is how it can improve opportunities for children. Hardson Lusiola, Headteacher at Walodeya Primary School in Chavakali, Kenya explained: “Since most of [the student’s] homes do not have power, I think the GravityLight will provide the opportunity to do their homework.”

Shell’s collection of bedtime stories has been created to celebrate and to remind us that something as simple as sustainable light can help create opportunities and inspire imaginations around the world.